Litigation Release No. 19198 / April 21, 2005

On December 16, 2004, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed a First Amended Complaint in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama to add Paul D. Carter ("Carter") and American Financial Business, LLC ("AFB") as defendants and The Carter Group, Inc. ("Carter Group") as a relief defendant in the ongoing litigation against Timothy R. Heyman ("Heyman"), and Heyman International, Inc. ("Heyman International"). The First Amended Complaint alleges that in conjunction with the $10 million Heyman International Ponzi scheme, Carter, through AFB, engaged in an unregistered and fraudulent offering of securities to approximately 100 additional investors. These additional investors reside in Colorado, Kentucky, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Virginia.

The Commission's First Amended Complaint alleges that from September 2002 to April 2004, Carter, through AFB, raised nearly $2 million from investors by offering and selling "Depository Loan Agreements." The First Amended Complaint also alleges that Carter represented that investors would earn a minimum return of 3% per month on their principal investment and that investor funds were fully refundable. The First Amended Complaint further alleges that Carter and AFB misrepresented that AFB traded foreign currencies and employed foreign currency traders. The First Amended Complaint also alleges that Carter told investors that he was going to send their funds to Heyman who would use their funds to trade foreign currencies. The First Amended Complaint alleges that Carter could not, at any time during the AFB offering, refund investors' principal as he promised. Additionally, the First Amended Complaint alleges that in reality, AFB did not trade foreign currencies or any other securities and none of the AFB investor funds were ever invested in any investment vehicle by Carter, Heyman or anyone else. While Carter sent AFB investor funds to Heyman, in reality, Carter and Heyman were operating a Ponzi scheme. The proceeds from Carter and AFB's offering were commingled with funds raised from Heyman International investors which where then used to pay AFB investors their purported monthly "interest" and Carter's personal expenses. The First Amended Complaint also alleges that Carter had no reasonable basis to represent to investors that Heyman would invest their funds in foreign currencies.

Moreover, the Commission alleges that Carter used an AFB bank account to deposit the commingled Heyman International and AFB investor funds he received from Heyman that represented the purported "interest" earned from foreign currency trading. The Commission further alleges that Carter transferred some of these investor funds to a bank account he controlled under the name of Carter Group, a Kentucky corporation for which Carter served as President. Carter Group never performed any services for AFB for which it was owed any money.

The First Amended Complaint alleges that Carter and AFB violated Sections 5(a), 5(c) and 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933, Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5 thereunder. The Commission seeks, among other things, a permanent injunction against further violations of the federal securities laws and appropriate civil penalties against Carter and AFB and disgorgement plus prejudgment interest against Carter, AFB and Carter Group.